The Rise of Fundamentalism (Essay Sample)

The Rise of Fundamentalism
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The Rise of Fundamentalism
Fundamentalism movement rose in the late 19th and early 20th centuries within Protestantism in the United States against biblical criticism and modernist theology as well as changes in the social and cultural scene of the country. The movement, a twelve-volume set of essays that was designed to combat Liberal theology, grew by bounds and leaps after the First World War.[Emerson, Michael O., et al. "THE RISE OF RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM." Annual Review Of Sociology 32, (August 2006): 127-144.]
Many historians define the original period of Fundamentalism Movement as 1880 to 1930. The movement, however, emerged in the late 1880s in a response to three forces namely evolution, higher criticism, and the social gospel. The growing movement was name Fundamentalism in the early 1900s.[Mickens, Leah. "The Rise of Global Fundamentalism: Are Humanists Really 'Winning'?." Free Inquiry 35, no. 1 (December 2014): 20-23.]
Fundamentalism rose in reaction to progressive and liberal views of the people of the United States in the mid 19th century, the influx of non-Protestant immigrants, and biblical higher criticism. Fundamentalists were known for the desire to focus on the time-honored cultural pattern and strictly literal interpretation of the Bible. The readings of the Bible defined the distinctive roles of parents and children, men and women, and laity and clergy.[Emerson, Michael O., et al. "THE RISE OF RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM." Annual Review Of Sociology 32, (August 2006): 127-144.]
The Fundamentalists were most commonly known for the opposition of Charles Darwin natural selection theory that was taught in schools. The movement also took credit for birthing the right of Christianity in the moral majority of Jerry Falwell, the rise of Charismatic and Pentecostalism movements worship style of tongue speaking. Fundamentalists argued that the modernist theologians of the early 19th century rejected or misinterprets certain doctrines, particularly biblical inerrancy that they perceived as the fundamentals of Christian faith.[Mickens, Leah. "The Rise of Global Fundamentalism: Are Humanists Really 'Winning'?." Free Inquiry 35, no. 1 (December 2014): 20-23.]
Christian reaction to Darwinism and other scientific theories
Christians reacted against the theory of Charles Darwin with skepticism because the natural selection theory was so revolutionary. According to the Fundamentalists, Darwin was not even aware of the mechanism of genetics, heredity and thus deserved criticism. However, Darwin’s evolution theory has stuck as an integral part of biology.[Ruby, Jennie. "Fundamentalisms ON THE RISE." Off Our Backs 36, no. 3 (October 2006): 11-13.]
Naturalists, through meticulous study of the fossil record, helped in the spread of the view that the earth was older and not young. While Christianity is opposed to Charles Darwin theory of natural selection, the first American scientists to support Darwin’s theory in public was Asa Gray, a devout Christian, who is today among the most prominent biologists of the 19th century in the United States.[Emerson, Michael O., et al. "THE RISE OF RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM." Annual Review Of Sociology 32, (August 2006): 127-144.]
Gray believed that the theory of Charles Darwin was not atheistic. However, many Christians argued that many would use the theory as an excuse for unbelief. Christians, including Gray Asa, concluded that there is a need to reshape the argument from redesign in order to harmonize the beliefs of Christians in design with the natural progress’s fundamental scientific belief.
According to many, the idea of whether life evolves or not should not be confused with the existence of God as an issue. According to Gray, each issue should be investigated with appropriate methods to the subject of inquiry. However, Gray’s decline to argue for either extreme upset both radical proponents of science and anti-revolutionists, both of whom were eager to assert and believe that Darwin’s evolution theory implied atheism.Rise of higher criticism of the Bible[Ruby, Jennie. "Fundamentalisms ON THE RISE." Off Our Backs 36, no. 3 (October 2006): 11-13.]
Biblical criticism has been seen as the act of treating biblical texts as natural artifacts rather than supernatural artifacts. Biblical criticism grew out of 17th and 18th centuries’ rationalism. It was divided between the lower criticism, the closer biblical text examination to establish original readings, and the higher criticism, the study of the history and composition of biblical texts.[Mickens, Leah. "The Rise of Global Fundamentalism: Are Humanists Really 'Winning'?." Free Inquiry 35, no. 1 (December 2014): 20-23.]
The criticism of both the New Testament and Old Testament developed within the scientific approach context to the humanities which increased in the 19th century. Old and New Testaments’ study were independent from each other basically because of unavailability of any single author to adequately grasp the many cultural backgrounds or the many languages required for the different periods from where the texts had originated.[Cone, Christopher B. "CONSIDERING HIGHER CRITICISM: The Relationship of Authenticity to Authority." Journal Of Dispensational Theology 16, no. 47 (April 2012): 7-21.]
Higher criticism, whether classical, biblical, medieval or byzantine, emphasizes on the sources of a document to identify who wrote it, which location, and when it was written. Higher criticism, in biblical studies, is used to address the synoptic problem, the question of the way the texts of Mark, Mathew, and Luke are related to one another. In certain cases, such as epistles of Pauline, higher criticism attests to the authorship understanding of the traditions. In some cases, higher criticism contradicts traditions of the church or even the biblical words.["Higher criticism." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (December 2013): 1.]
Higher criticism sought to investigate and interpret biblical document just like any other antiquity document. Higher critics were not only interested in the primal literacy of the Bible sources, but also in the undisclosed and operative assumptions of the biblical writers. Two responses seemed inescapable to the higher criticism in the end of the 19th century. In the circles of academics, there was no returning to the pre-critical methods of hermeneutics of the Bible. However, in the ecclesial circles, there was deepening reluctance to believe the assured results of the scholarship of the higher critics.[Cone, Christopher B. "CONSIDERING HIGHER CRITICISM: The Relationship of Authenticity to Authority." Journal Of Dispensational Theology 16, no. 47 (April 2012): 7-21.]
The two positions came to poignant focus when Charles A. Briggs, a Presbyterian professor of the Union Theological Seminary, was tried for heresy for his modernist assertions concerning the Bible between 1892 and 1893. By the start of the 20th century, higher criticism was deemed too amorphous and simplistic. At that time, biblical scholars from different university doctoral studies and religious traditions were eager to broker the hermeneutical insights adapted a more and broader secular scholarship in the fields of literary criticism, history, science, and modern philosophy.["Higher criticism." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (December 2013): 1.]
The Scopes Trial and its ramifications
The Tennessee legislature passed, in March 1925, the Butler Act. The act provides that it was illegal on the part of teachers to present as factual any theory of creation in the public schools other than the biblical account. The law aimed at the theory of evolution from the account of Charles Darwin. The evolution theory was hugely distorted in the mid of the public to assume than man descended from apes. A firm grip on the values and norms of the tradition was more important to many rural Americans during the turbulent years after the war. During this time, cultural tensions were exhibited in issues such as racial and ethnic relations, prohibition, and religious authority. In the wake of the Butler Act, Scope was cited for teaching evolution in biology class. It set the stage for the trial of the century.[SICKEL, AARON J. "Trying Biology: The Scopes Trial,...